Christine McVie reunited with Stevie Nicks and the rest of Fleetwood Mac on stage Wednesday night in London, and just seeing this video of it made me cry. (I want to believe that Jessica’s piece celebrating the friendship/sisterhood of Christine and Stevie had something to do with this miracle.) They played “Don’t Stop,” but selfishly I wish they would have performed my favorite Christine song, “Isn’t It Midnight,” from Tango in the Night. P.S. There’s a biopic in the works about the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson that depicts the tumultuous relationship he had with Christine. She will be played by Vera Farmiga, whom I also love because of movies like this one.

I haven’t seen the new coming-of-age movie Babygirl yet, but based on this trailer, which dropped Monday, I am gonna love it. The main character, 16-year-old Lena (played by first-time actor Yainis Ynoa), is being ogled by her mother’s boyfriend—and she seems to respond to him with wit and a toughness that’s written all over her face. Babygirl has been getting accolades at film festivals for a year now, and it’s finally opening for a commercial audience on October 4 at New York’s Quad Cinemas. I can’t wait!

Have you seen the new Charli XCX video? It’s like if you were kicking it with your best girlfriends at a Tokyo candy rave, and it is THE BEST. Charli is truly a pop star for our time!

Maggie

A screen cap of the new app by New Scientist.

This interactive map by New Scientist shows the number of Earth-like planets that may exist in the universe in a way that is beautiful to behold. Based on data from the Kepler Space Telescope, the magazine estimates that there are 15 to 30 billion Earth-like planets out there. Knowing there are other worlds capable of sustaining life makes me feel a tiny bit better that we are turning this one into a smog-choked hellhole with dwindling biodiversity. Hopefully those places are as beautiful as this one but populated by a less destructive species than humans.

Brodie

I am unashamedly obsessed with Kanye West and everything he represents. So you can imagine my joy at this week’s slow-trickle release of the four-part video breakdown of BBC Radio 1′s recent interview with Yeezy. He sat down in the studio with Zane Lowe, and he got down to business! The full interview’s run time is an hour; part three, above, is my favorite. If you’ve ever had reservations about Kanye—like thought he was a jerk or a narcissist, or questioned his intent or talent or his relationship with Kim Kardashian—you need to watch the whole thing. He insists that people should say “thank you” to artists whose work they love, talks about what went down with Taylor Swift at the VMAs, and compares himself to Wreck-It Ralph. Kanye constantly flummoxes Lowe by disassembling the interview format; two minutes before the end, he tells him, “You can’t ever tell me what dream to have.” I just got goosebumps typing that.

Anna F.

It’s been one year since Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, above, and Maria Alyokhina were convicted of “hooliganism” and sent to separate Russian prison camps for performing a protest song about Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church in a cathedral in Moscow. On Monday, the Guardian published a letter from Nadezhda chronicling her prison’s brutal conditions. (I’d like to add a trigger warning here for abuse, because it is a tough read.) She announced that she would be going on a hunger strike, starting that day, to protest the inhumane conditions she and her fellow prisoners are subjected to. Yesterday, her husband notified the press that she had been hospitalized within the camp. I don’t have much to add, except that I wish her luck.

A couple weeks ago at The Nation, Rookie contributor Roxane Gay wrote this post on how few writers of color get reviewed in major literary publications, and the numbers were bleak. This week she compiled a list of “urgent, unheard stories” by writers of color being published this fall. The books are broad in content and theme, so there’s something in there for everybody, no matter what you like to read. I’m really excited for Carmen Gimenez Smith’s Milk and Filth and Samantha Irby’s Meaty, a copy of which I just got my hands on. And now you know what I’ll be doing with my Saturday.

Anaheed

Better than the “300 sandwiches” story (man requires girlfriend to make same before he’ll marry her) were the writer Ann Friedman’s tweets imagining alternative scenarios in the form of rhyme-y romcom titles:

Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon made fun of hashtags on Tuesday’s episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and it’s great. Justin should quit all of his other jobs and just make little sketches with Jimmy. They are the dream team.

Justin Bieber did a pretty good job as a guest on the latest episode of Zach Galifianakis’s excellent pretend talk show, Between Two Ferns. I’m not sure about something, though: Does the Biebs actually have a sense of humor, or does he just know enough to pretend that he does?

Stephanie

When I saw “How to Get Flat Abs” all over my Facebook feed on Monday, I wondered if everyone I know had gotten hacked. But it turned out to be a list, from The Huffington Post, of ways to make your own happiness, which is something I’ve been all about lately. After years of saying that one day I would move across the country to live in Seattle, I finally did it. With that choice came other things that also happen to appear on the list, including stopping with the “crazy making” and practicing gratitude. It was the perfect way to start my week. If you haven’t seen it yet, hopefully it can make a perfect ending to yours. ♦

That Huffington Post article reads a bit like an episode of Doctor Who – like how the human companions always feel small and unimportant when they first see how big the universe is, and how the Doctor always tells them how amazingly important they are just by living and by doing all their human things.

I am not hating, Brodie, I promise, but I can’t take that West interview seriously. Just seems like too much insider baseball or something. I have zero idea what he is talking about. You know, like those super technical videos that go viral? …art college. I did understand that! That made a lot of sense, explains a lot, to me. I could relate to that. Even the Vanellope reference (seriously under rated character btw). I know a fair amount about what he is talking about (I have actually tried to explain his apartment to people, once) and I am lost. If I am lost, the interviewer and everyone listening must have been. I don’t think it’s ego. He’s just in his own head too much, he’s talking to him self. There is a difference. My guess is when he’s Jay Z’s age he won’t go zen at all. He will probably still be pretty frustrated he’s trapped between two worlds… West would be a great subject for an article on Rookie :D

I love Kanye! Thank you for posting this clip! I think he is an amazing artist in every sense of the word. I feel like not many people can appreciate how inspiring he is because everyone is stuck on this idea that recognizing your own value is the worst thing a person can do.
Thoughts on Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and the awful jail conditions she is living in – I think this whole situation with pussy riot furthers the need for a boycott of the Russian Olympics. I don’t want to support any country where expressing your opinions warrants this type of punishment.

Hey Lucy — we can’t let you guys share your actual email addresses (or last names) on our site, because most of our readers are minors. Do you have a Tumblr or a blog or a Twitter or something you an direct miaxe to, and she can contact you from there?

that last link on huff post is AWESOME! every single day i think to myself what a shitty life i’ve been having, only to just now realizing how totally insignificant all my so called “problems” really are. the world is such a wonderful, magnificent place we can’t really afford to live even one day without being grateful that we are here.

As a fashion designer, I cannot agree that Rick Owens’ show was the best fashion show of all time. Well, look at the clothes – they are not made to fit the women’s sizes, nothing fits properly, and the stuff looks like it’s been sewn together by a couple of unpaid interns. So fashionwise, I think it wasn’t a breakthrough at all. The dance performance seemed pretty out of place and I caught myself feeling slightly ashamed of the whole show. I don’t think just because a designer chooses to have bigger women presenting his fashion it is automatically the “best thing ever”.

I am aghast at the conditions in the Russian prison and so glad that there are people brave enough to fight this kind of fight. I hope she makes it out safely, it’s deeply upsetting that there can be such horrible purposeful systematic oppression anywhere. I think we all know that it’s out there in this huge world and we have to put it aside to get through our day but we do ourselves a disservice if we don’t stop and remember when given the opportunity.

I’m in fashion and it really makes me happy to see models who aren’t really thin and tall included for (insert a well known city) Fashion Week. Sure, some of the clothes could have been tailored a little better but I am still impressed with Rick Owens. I do like how the white outfits were constructed– they seemed to really flatter the dancers the best.

If I were to showcase a collection, I will use models of all sizes too.

okay so this isn’t necessarily related to this post (which is awesome, btw) but i don’t know where else it would be relevant.
for the rookie meetups, how exactly do we… go? do we have to get tickets, or rsvp, or just show up, because i really really really want to go but i want to make sure i’m able to.
thanks so much!!! i love rookie beyond words and can’t wait for yearbook two to arrive on my doorstep tomorrow!

Hi, queen people! April’s theme is BOTH SIDES NOW, which considers the many different answers to THE BIG QUESTIONS, whatever those are for you. If you’ve got a project or pitch about seeing things in a whole new light, please email it to submission@rookiemag.com.

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Rookie is a website for teenage girls. With monthly-themed content, we update three times every weekday, and once a day on weekends. Click here to find out where to send stuff you'd like us to see. Learn about the people who write this thing here.